ASSOCIATION

ASSOCIATION (associo, to accompany).—Applied to laws of mental combination which
facilitate recollection—commonly called "Association of Ideas." "The law of
association is this—That empirical ideas, which often follow each other, create
a habit in the mind, whenever the one is produced, for the other always to
follow" (Kant, Anthropology, p. 182). The philosophy which traces all knowledge
to experience regards association as also a means of developing higher powers.

The laws of association as commonly stated are these :—(1) Similarity; (2)
Contiguity; (3) Repetition;—mental phenomena, similar, or often occurring
together, recall each other, The bond becomes stronger as the relation in
consciousness recurs. Dispute has been raised over the question whether we may
hold such associations as indissoluble or inseparable (J. S, Mill's Examination
of Hamilton, 3rd ed., p. 220).

"Ideas, that in themselves are not at all alien, come to be so united in some
men's minds that it is very hard to separate them; they always keep company, and
the one no sooner at any time comes into the understanding but its associate
appears with it" (Locke's Essay, bk. II. ch. XXXIII. sec. 5).